John was born in June of 1821, in Rothesay, Bute, Scotland, United Kingdom, and baptised on the 7th of July 1822.
Birth Record[1]
John Baxter's ancestors had lived on the Isle of Bute for as long as anyone could remember. Originally they had come however, from a family from the Highlands, from Clan Macmillan. There are also Baxter families that come from the lowlands, from Ireland and from England. None of them are related.
John was listed as a cotton spinner in the 1851 Scotland census. In 1851 he lived with his wife Janet and son Archibald, 2 years old, and daughter Isabella 1 month old at 23 Castle Street, Rothesay. Janet died in Scotland in 1855.
John arrived at Port Chalmers, Otago, New Zealand in 1861 on the "Lady Egidia". The Lady Egidia left Glasgow and traveled down the Clyde on Wednesday the 10th of October 1860 and arrived at Port Chalmers on the 28th January 1861. According to the passenger list, he arrived with his wife (unnamed), two sons and a daughter.
The Lady Egidia left with 438 passengers on board. It brought passengers from Edinburgh, Perth, Aberdeen, Ullapool, the Orkneys and Ireland. There were so many gaelic speakers on the ship that special religious services were in held in gaelic. 30 children and 2 adults died on the voyage.
John hoped for steady employment and good wages when he arrived in NZ. At first he and his family stayed at the immigrant barracks on the beach at Dunedin. They then moved to Brighton, down the coast from Dunedin. John worked first as a cook. He set up a cookhouse at Harpers Pass which catered for gold diggers going to the gold fields in the Taramakau Valley on the West Coast. He prospected unsuccessfully at Gabriel's Gully but was more successful at Dunstan. Later he went to the West Coast when gold was found there, and set up a cookhouse for miners at Harpers Pass.
John then returned to Glasgow where he invested in a line of small steamers on the Clyde, and later returned to NZ.
John was known for his liking for playing the bagpipes and for swimming in the sea. Every day until he died he would take a swim in the sea in the little bay to the north the "Big Rock" at Brighton.
John passed away in November of 1914, in Otago, New Zealand.
Burial: Green Island Cemetery in Dunedin, Dunedin City, Otago, New Zealand
FindAGrave Memorial link[2]
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Categories: Lady Egidia, sailed 12 October 1860